Telescoping power driven vehicle antennas are driven up and down by a flexible cable that unwinds from and rewinds onto a reel. The reel is contained within a housing located below the surface of the body panel from which the antenna emerges. In the up position, the cable will be exposed to environmental contaminants, such as water and dust, and it is desirable that these be scraped from the surface of the rewinding cable before it re-enters the housing. To do this adequately, any seal surrounding the cable must contact it with a fair amount of interference. This is not a problem as the cable is rewinding, because it is then under tension. When the cable is unwinding, however, the situation is different. Though stiffer than a string, the cable, like a string, can resist far less compression than tension. Since the cable is under compression as it unwinds, a tight scraping seal might exceed the compression threshold of the drive cable.